ar lib. 1. de contemptu mundi, confessed as much of himself, and Cardan in his 5 book of wisdom, gives an instance in a Smith of Millan, a fellow Citizen of his, "one Galeus de Rubeis, that being commended for refinding of an instrument of Archimedes, for joy ran mad. Plutarch in the life of Artaxerxes, hath such a like story of one Chamus a souldier, that wounded King Cyrus in battle, and "grew thereupon so rogant, that in a short space after he lost his wits." So many men, if any new honor, office, preferment, booty, treasure, possession, or patrimony, er insperato fall unto them, for immoderate joy, and continual meditation of it, cannot sleep or tell what they say or do, they are so ravished on a sudden; and with vain conceits transported, there is no rule with them. Epaminondas therefore, the next day after his Leuctrian victory, "came abroad all squalid and submisse," and gave no other reason to his friends of so doing, than that he perceived himself the day before, by reason of his good fortune, to be too insolent, overmuch joyed. That wise and vertuous Lady, *Queen Katherin, Dowager of England, in private talke, upon like occasion, said, "that she would not willingly endure the extremity of either fortune; but if it were so, that of necessity she must undergo the one, she would be in adversity, because comfort was never wanting in it, but still counsel and government were defective in the other:" They could not moderate themselves. SUBSECT. XV. Love of Learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression of the misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy. EONARTUS Fuchsius Instit. lib. 3. sect. 1. cap. 1. Fælix Plater, lib. 3. de mentis alienat. Herc. de Saxonia Tract. post. de melanch. cap. 3. speak of a peculiar Fury, which comes by overmuch study. Fernelius, lib. 1. cap. 18. puts Study, contemplation, and continual meditation, as an OGaleus de rubeis, civis noster faber ferrarius, ob inventionem instrumenti Cocleæ olim Archimedis dicti, præ lætitia insanivit. * Insania postmodum correptus, ob nimiam inde arrogantiam. y Bene ferre magnam disce fortunam. Hor. Fortunam reverenter habe, quicunque repentè Dives ab exili progrediere loco. Ausonius. * Processit squalidus & submissus, ut hesterni Diei gaudium intemperans hodie castigaret. Uxor Hen. 8. Neutrius se fortunæ extremum libenter experturam dixit: sed si necessitas alterius subinde imponeretur, optare se difficilem & adversam: quod in hac nulli unquam defuit sola tium, in altera multis consilium, &c. Lod. Vives. Peculiaris furor, qui ex literis fit. Nihil magis auget, ac assidua studia, & profundæ cogitationes. X 2 especial 16. 66 e especial cause of madness: and in his 86 consul. cites the same words. Jo. Arculanus in lib. 9. Rhasis ad Alnansorem cap. 16. amongst other causes reckons up studium vehemens: so doth Levinus Lemnius, lib. de occul. nat. mirac. lib. 1. cap. Many men (saith he) come to this malady by continual Study, and night-waking, and of all other men, SchoJars are most subject to it :" and such Rhasis adds, "that have commonly the finest wits." Cont. lib. 1. tract. 9. Marsilius Ficinus de sanit. tuenda. lib. 1. cap. 7. puts Melancholy amongst one of those five principal plagues of Students, 'tis a common Maul unto them all, and almost in some measure an inseparable companion. Varro belike for that cause calls Tristes Philosophos & severos, severe, sad, dry, tetrick, are common Epithites to Scholars: And & Patritius therefore, in the institution of Princes, would not have them to be great Students. For (as Machiavel holds) Study weakens their bodies, dulls the spirits, abates their strength and courage; and good Scholars are never good Souldiers, which a certain Goth well perceived, for when his Country-men came into Greece, and would have burned all their books, he cried out against it, by no means they should do it, leave them that plague, which in time will consume all their vigor, and martiall spirits.' The Turks abdicated Cornutus the next heir from the Empire, because he was so much given to his book: and 'tis the common Tenent of the world, that Learning duls and diminisheth the spirits, and so per consequens produceth melancholy. h Two main reasons may be given of it, why Students should be more subject to this malady than others. The one is, they live a sedentary, solitary life, sibi & musis, free from bodily exercise, and those ordinary disports which other men use: and many times if discontent and idleness concur with it, which is too frequent, they are precipitated into this gulph on a sudden but the common cause is overmuch study; too much learning (as Festus told Paul) hath made thee mad; 'tis that other extreme which effects it. So did Trincavelius, lib. 1. consil. 12. & 13. finde by his experience, in two of his Patients, a young Baron, and another that contracted this malady by too vehement study. So Forestus observat. l. 10. observ. • Non desunt, qui ex jugi studio, & intempestiva lucubratione, huc devenerunt, hi præ cæteris enim plerunque melancholia sollent infestari. *Study is a continuall and earnest meditation, applied to some thing with great desire. Tully. f Et illi qui sunt subtilis ingenii, & multæ præmeditationis, de facili incidunt in melancholiam. & Ob studiorum solicitudinem lib. 5. Tit. 5. Gaspar Ens Thesaur Polit. Apoteles. 31. Græcis hanc pestem relinquite, quæ dubium non est, quin brevi emnem iis vigorem ereptura Martiosque spiritus exhaustura sit; Ut ad arma tractanda plane inhabiles futuri sint. Knoles Turk. 66 m 13. in a young Divine in Lovain, that was mad, and said " he had a Bible in his head:" Marsilius Ficinus de sanit. tuend. lib. 1. cap. 1.3. 4. & lib. 2. cap. 16. gives many reasons, why Students dote more often then others:" The first is their negligence: "other men look to their Tools, a Painter will wash his Pensils, a Smith will look to his Hammer, Anvil, Forge: an Husbandman will mend his Plough-Irons, and grinde his hatchet if it be dull; a Faulkner or Huntsman will have an especial care of his Hawks, Hounds, Horses, Dogs, &c.: A Musitian will string, and unstring his Lute, &c. onely Scholars neglect that Instrument, their brain and spirits (I mean) which they daily use, and by which they range over all the world, which by much study is consumed." Vide (saith Lucian) ne funiculum nimis intendendo, aliquandò abrumpas: See thou twist not the rope so hard, till at length it break. Facinus in his fourth Chap. gives some other reasons; Saturn and Mercury, the Patrons of Learning, are both dry Planets: and Origanus assigns the same cause, why Mercurialists are so poor, and most part beggers; for that their President Mercury had no better fortune himself. The Destinies of old put poverty upon him as a punishment; since when, Poetry and Beggery, are Gemelli, twin-born Brats, inseparable com panions: " And to this day is every Scholar poor, Gross gold from them runs headlong to the Boor:" Mercury can help them to knowledg, but not to money. The second is contemplation," which dries the brain and extinguisheth natural heat; for whilst the spirits are intent to meditation above in the head, the stomack and liver are left destitute, and thence come black blood and crudities by defect of concoction, and for want of exercise the superfluous vapours cannot exhale," &c. The same reasons are repeated by Gomesius, lib. 4. cap. 1. de sale Nymannus orat. de Imag. Jo. Voschius lib. 2. cap. 5. de peste: and something more they 1 Nimiis studiis melancholicus evasit, dicens se Biblium in capite habere. Cur melancholia assidua, crebrisque deliramentis vexentur eorum animi ut desipere cogantur. "Solers quilibet artifex instrumenta sua diligentissime curat, penicellos pictor; malleos incudesq; faber ferrarius; miles equos, arma venator, auceps aves, & canes, Cytharam Cytharædus, &c. soli musarum mystæ tam negligentes sunt, ut instrumentum illud quo mundum universum metiri solent, spiritum scilicet, penitus negligere videantur. Arcus & arma tibi non sunt imitanda Dianæ. Si nunquam cesses tendere mollis erit. Ovid. ? Ephemer. Contemplatio cerebrum exsiccat & extinguit calorem naturalem, unde cerebrum frigidum & siccum evadit quod est melancholicum. Accedit ad hoc, quod natura in contemplatione, cerebro prorsus cordiq; intenta, stomachum heparq; destituit, unde ex alimentis male coctis, sanguis crassus & niger efficitur, dum nimio otio membrorum superflui vapores non exhalant, Cerebrum exsiccatur, corpora sensim gracilescunt. S add, that hard Students are commonly troubled with Gouts, "Qui cupit optatam cursu contingere metam, He that desires this wished goal to gain, and labor hard for it. So did Seneca, by his own confession, ep. 8. "Not a day that I spend idle, part of the night I keep mine eyes open, tired with waking, and now slumbring to their continual task." Hear Tully prò Archia Poeta; "whilst others loytered, and took their pleasures, he was continually at his book," so they do that will be Scholars, and that to the hazard (I say) of their healths, fortunes, wits, and lives. How much did Aristotle and Ptolemy spend? unius regni precium they say, more then a King's ransom; how many crowns per annum, to perfect arts, the one about his History of Creatures, the other on his Almagest? How much time did Thebet Benchorat employ, to finde out the motion of the eight sphear? forty years and more, some write: how many poor Scholars have lost their wits, or become Dizards, neglecting all worldly affairs and their own health, wealth, esse and bene esse, to gain knowledg? for which, after all their pains in their world's esteem they are accounted ridiculous and silly Fools, Idiots, Asses, and (as oft they are) rejected, contemned, derided, doting, and mad. Look for examples'in Hildisheim spicel. 2. de mania & delirio: read Trincavellius . 3 consil. 36. & c. 17. Montanus consil. 233. "Garceus de Judic. genit. cap. 33. Mercurialis consil. 86. cap 25. Book de atrá bile: Go to Bedlam and ask. Or if they keep Prosper Calenius in his * Studiosi sunt Cacectici & nunquam bene colorati, propter debilitatem digestivæ facultatis, multiplicantur in iis superfluitates. Jo. Voschius parte 2. cap. 5. de peste. Nullus mihi per otium dies exit, partem noctis studiis dedico, non vero somno, sed oculos vigilia fatigatos cadentesque, in operam detineo. Johannes Hanuschius Bohemus. nat. 1516. eruditus vir, nimis studiis in PhreResin incidit. Montánus instances in a Frenchman of Tolosa. Cæcius; ob laborem, vigiliam, & diuturna studia factus Melancholicus. * Cardinalis their wits, yet they are esteemed scrubs and fools by reason of their carriage: "after seven years study" "statuâ taciturnius exit, Plerumque & risum populi quatit." Because they cannot ride an horse, which every Clown can do: salute and court a Gentlewoman, carve at Table, chringe, and make congies, which every common Swasher can do, hos populus ridet, &c. they are laughed to scorn, and accompted silly fools by our Gallants. Yea many times, such is their misery, they deserve it: a meer Scholar, a meer Ass. "b Obstipo capite, & figentes lumine terram, Their heads piercing the earth with a fixt eye Thus they go commonly meditating unto themselves, thus they sit, such is their action and gesture. Fulgosus l. 8. c. 7. makes mention how Th. Aquinas supping with King Lewis of France, upon a sudden knocked his fist upon the table, and cryed, conclusum est contra Manichæos, his wits were a woolgathering, as they say, and his head busied about other matters, when he perceived his error, he was much abashed. Such a story there is of Archimedes in Vitruvius, that having found out the means to know how much gold was mingled with the silver in King Hieron's crown, ran naked forth of the bath and cryed ugnxa I have found: "and was commonly so intent to his studies, that he never perceived what was done about him when the City was taken, and the souldiers now ready to rifle his house, he took no notice of it." S. Bernard rode all day long by the Lemnian lake, and asked at last where he was, Marullus lib. 2. cap. 4. It was Democritus carriage • Pers. Sat. y Pers. Sat. 3. They cannot fiddle; but as Themistocles said, he could make a small town become a great City. Ingenium sibi quod vanas desumpsit Athenas & septem studiis annos dedit, insenuitque. Libris & curis statua taciturnius exit, Plerunque & risu populum quatit, Hor. ep. 1. lib. 2. Translated by M. B. Holiday. d Thomas rubore confusus dixit se de argumento cogitasse Plutarch. vitâ Marcelli, Nec sensit urbem captam, nec milites in domum irruentes, adeo intentus studiis, &c. X 4 alone |